usrentacar.co.uk ® Car Hire USA Blog

Hi all,

Here at usrentacar.co.uk we’re always looking at ways to make the car rental experience better for you. In 2003 we were one of the very first car rental companies to offer customers the chance to secure their car rental with a deposit. Since then we’ve constantly continued to innovate in a  market that is slow to do so. We were the first to independently collect and show supplier reviews collected directly from the customer, we were the first to create a dedicated voucher app to allow customer to collect their vehicles on the move and we were the first to offer the customer a transparent results page giving the customer the power to pick the supplier they wanted.

Today I’m happy to introduce to you the U.S. Rent A Car Pay Your Way scheme, simply put this is the next generation of deposit scheme’s and is a first within the car rental industry. If your booking qualifies, i.e. is due for collection 8 weeks or more away you’ll be given the opportunity to leave a deposit of £50.00. Normally the rest of the balance would be due 8 weeks prior to departure. However after feedback from our customers we’ve now added the option to pay off portions of your rental in installments via our website. You can pay as little or as much as you like.

The balance is still due 8 weeks prior to departure but the new option will allow U.S. Rent A Car customers a new way to budget for their USA car hire.

How does it work?

To pay off some of your car rental balance simply visit www.usrentacar.co.uk/booking and enter your email address and the password you selected at the time of booking.

Any booking that qualifies for the Pay Your Way Scheme will have the following message available to them,

You can pay off the balance of your car rental in full or via instalments here

Once you click on the pay off button you’ll be taken to a separate page which will allow you to securely enter your credit/debit card details and select the amount you wish to pay off.

Pretty simple really, we hope you find this new additional helpful.

Kind regards,

James

Hi all,

It seemed only a matter of time that other suppliers would follow Alamo Rent A Car’s lead and introduce a one way rental fee for pick up’s from the San Francisco area. A one way rental is any rental where the vehicle is returned to a different location than the one its collected from.

What we understand here at U.S. Rent A Car is that all suppliers are having difficulties keeping up with the demand of hires taking place in the San Francisco area, and when vehicles are then dropped off at a different location those vehicles are removed from the San Francisco allocation.

We hope that this new surcharge will only affect peak season bookings going forward, however as you can see from the information below provided by Hertz Dollar Thrifty no end date is sighted. This new one way rental charge applies to all Dollar and Thrifty bookings regardless of where the booking is made and affects anyone who sells Dollar and Thrifty including booking directly.

Due to fleet restrictions and strong demand for one way rentals, we will introduce a new one way fee for rentals collecting from the San Francisco area and returning to Southern California and Las Vegas valid for rentals from 1^st August 2014.

This fee will be applicable on all rentals, all rate products and all vehicles from all source-markets. This fee will remain in place until further notice. Please see below the specific rental and return locations.

Dollar

Rentals collecting from SFO SFD SJC OAK and returning to LAX SAN LAS ONT SNA PSP BUR LGB will incur a one way fee of $450.00 payable locally and subject to taxes and fees.

Thrifty

Rentals collecting from SFOT SFDT SJCT OAKT and returning to LAXT SANT LAST ONTT SNAT PSPT BURT LGBT will incur a one way fee of $450.00 payable locally and subject to taxes and fees.

This new fee will not apply to bookings made before the 01/08/14 which is a relief. We hope that the charge will only apply over peak season but as you can see the information we have received doesn’t confirm when the charge will end.

We’ll keep you updated when we know more.

Kind regards,

James

Hi all,

Hot on the trail of yesterdays 3 U.S. Rent A Car pages you may have missed comes today’s offering.

3 things you may not know about USA car hire.

Additional Driver for Free

Yep that’s right, in California (pick up only) all our suppliers offer an additional driver free of charge within the Silver rate. The additional driver does not have to be named at the time of booking as their details will be required locally. The additional driver must still adhere to our terms and conditions, for example they must be the holder of a full licence.

Free One Way Rentals

Within California or Florida picking up in one location and dropping off at another (within the same state) is free of charge. Generally suppliers like to charge an additional fee but we have negotiated some additional benefits.

We also have a few suppliers that offer free one way rentals between Nevada, Arizona and California (vice versa) ask our reservations department on 0845 226 8523 about which suppliers most suit your trip. Alternatively you can use our location finder to check one way rental prices.

Young Driver Policies

Paying the young drivers surcharge locally can work out to be very expensive, the local charge is generally $25 plus tax per day per driver, but can be more depending upon pick up location.

Through a couple of our suppliers we can offer the young drivers package which can drastically reduce the cost involved for young driver in the USA.

I hope some of our readers can take advantage of these unique special offers and hopefully in the future we can announce some more.

Regards,

James

Hi all,

Last week representatives of U.S. Rent A Car attended the World Travel Market (WTM). WTM is a 4 day long exhibition held at Excel in London where suppliers and buyers meetup to discuss the previous years work and how they can increase business in 2014.

Each industry has a different approach to WTM and what they can get out of it, for USA car hire companies its a good chance to meet new suppliers and nail down some deals. Here’s what we got up too.

Sixt Rent A Car

Our first meeting was with Sixt Rent A Car who were obviously delighted with the numbers we had produced for them. As a first year supplier on usrentacar.co.uk I think they were a bit shocked at how many rentals we can send. This actually coincided with one of our concerns; can Sixt provide enough vehicles for the amount of business we can send?

Sixt are probably the fastest growing independent car rental company in the U.S. at the moment their strategy of growing via franchises seems to be working well and they continue to grow and add to their Fleet. They were confident they would have the Fleet to maintain our growth.

Alamo Rent A Car

Next up was a meeting with Alamo Rent A Car, always good to meet up with these guys, not only as we have a great working relationship but they are also fans of this blog

As always Alamo are keen to receive even more rentals from us and from early talks we could be looking at some additional product in the shape of prestige vehicles and opening up in to alternative markets.

Budget Rent A Car

Its been a strange year with Budget Rent A Car lots of behind the scene’s politics that have kept them from being sold on usrentacar.co.uk. Talks at WTM went very well and we hope to have them back on sale in the first quarter of 2014. We’re still talking about what type of product we’ll be offering.

Dollar Rent A Car

2014 looks to be the first year that Hertz will play a more hands on role in the running of Dollar Rent A Car, we are expecting a merging of systems and fleet which should see a much smoother process.

We’ve been talking about adding additional product from them including perhaps adding their high end brands but we’ll need to see if this is something our customers want.

Misc

We met with a few other suppliers about the possibility of adding them to our site, but on first impression we weren’t convinced that they could offer the basic level of service we would expect. You get what you pay for…

We’ll have post WTM meetings with all these suppliers to see where we go from here, we will of course keep you post via the blog.

regards,

Gavin

Morning all,

As I mentioned yesterday I’ve been looking through the stat’s for 2013 in preparation for meeting with suppliers, yesterdays post concentrated on the most popular vehicles rented in the U.S.  today I’m taking a look at the most popular pick up locations.

The statistics below only include vehicles collected by usrentacar.co.uk customers within 2013 (bookings could be made in 2012) and for rentals of 7 days or more.

Only one new entries this year in the shape of Newark which has performed extremely well. A nice climb for LAX which has performed marvelously this year as has Las Vegas.

Orlando still remains number one and with the reported opening of a new extension to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in 2014 I can’t see it being shifted for the foreseeable future.

Regards,

James

***THIS OFFER HAS EXPIRED***

Hi all,

It seems like a long time since I was able to write the words car hire USA “Special Offer”, throughout the year we continually negotiate deals with our suppliers for low rates which when applicable we simply slide them into our search results, we generally don’t make a big fuss about it, we think this is something you guys should expect from us.

However today I’m happy to announce a new Special Offer from our friends at Dollar Rent A Car, here’s the gist of it.

• Free Sat Nav Rental.
• Only applicable to New Dollar Rent A Car bookings.(amendments will not qualify)
• Pick up’s on and between 20/09/13 until the 18/12/13
• All locations except New York
• Must be booked on our Gold or Platinum rate.
• Cannot be added after a rental is made.
• Sat Nav’s are subject to availability, if the £0.00 option GPS unit does not appear in our optional extras section then unfortunately a unit isn’t available for your dates.

Here’s how to book it

Firstly enter your details into our search engine.

Remember to qualify your pick up must be on or between the 20/09/13 and the 18/12/13.

Once your results have been returned look for the car category you require. Remember you’re looking for Dollar Rent A Car. Once you’ve decided upon the category to qualify for free Sat Nav rental you need to select either our Gold or Platinum rate.

Once you’ve click on either the Gold or the Platinum rate click on the now button to head to the next stage.

The next page is our option extras page, where our customers can select any additional products they may require. You’ll notice the very top one is a Sat Nav unit, you’ll see that the price quoted is £0.00.

Simply click add to basket, to claim your free sat nav rental and complete the booking process. Remember this must be done at the time of booking and cannot be added after completion.

Confirmation of your free sat nav will be added to your car rental voucher. When you go to collect your car, Dollar Rent A Car will provide you with a Sat Nav unit for you to use during your hire duration at no extra cost.

We love this special offer and hope you guys will too.

Kind regards,

James

Hi all,

Here at usrentacar.co.uk we are about to hit one of the busiest USA car hire pick up times in the year, Easter! Along with the Summer holidays and Christmas,  Easter will see the largest number of our customers collecting their hire vehicles from our suppliers.

So I thought it might be a good idea to go over the process of collecting your car rental and what to look out for in regards to optional extras.

Collecting your car hire

To collect your car rental you will require the following

• Your usrentacar.co.uk Car Rental Voucher – you can print this from our website or download our free voucher app.
• Your full driving licence – If you’re from the UK this means both parts, it also has to be the actual licence regardless of what the DVLA tell you a fax copy is not sufficient.
• A major credit card in the name of the lead driver. The credit card is used for security and must be in the name of the driver specified on your voucher.

At the desk

When collecting your car rental you will be expected to sign a rental agreement, this rental agreement is the contract between yourself and the car rental supplier, it is not the same as the terms and conditions offered by ourselves.

We appreciate you’ve been travelling for a long time but you must fully read and understand this document before signing it. U.S. Rent A Car can not be held responsible for anything you sign and agree to locally.

Remember you are the customer so take you time to read the document do not allow yourself to be rushed regardless of how long the queue is behind you.

Items you maybe offered

The guys and girls on the desks generally work on commission, they are paid a low basic wage and make up the remainder of their salary by up-selling customer. These add on’s are totally optional and refusal will not prevent you from renting the vehicle.

A few items that you might be offered are;

• GPS units.
• Advanced Roadside Assistance – your rental comes with basic roadside assistance, the supplier may offer you an advanced option which covers human error for example, putting the wrong petrol in the car or locking your keys in the vehicle.
• Upgrades - The option to upgrade your vehicle to a hire spec, generally upgrading your vehicle is cheaper to do so before collection. Remember any upgrade offered will be at a per day rate.
• Toll Passes - called various things like SunPass or Pass24 this optional extra is useful for those on a road trip or passing automated tolls. Prices vary from location to location and supplier to supplier.
• Personal Accident Insurance - generally covered by your own travel insurance it covers you for personal injury.

Remember to fully read your rental agreement and double check if any of these items appear in error, some suppliers assume you’d want to take advantage of these items.

Top Tips

A few other tips you might bear in mind are;

• Re-read your rental agreement when you get to your accommodation  anything you are unsure of is generally covered by the suppliers 24 hours satisfaction guarantee. Call them if you’re unsure.
• Use the pre-registration services offered by our supplier to speed up your collection.
• If possible, send once person to the car rental desks while the others get the bags sorted.

If you have any tips that I’ve left out please feel free to comment below. Have a great holiday and tell us all about it when you return.

regards,

James,

Hi all,

So yesterday we finally received confirmation that Dollar Thrifty is now part of the Hertz family. The deal that seems to have been going on for centuries now means consolidation within the USA car hire industry, leaving only 3 major car rental suppliers from a competitive 4!

The hold up with the deal was due to the FTC’s concerns regarding competition within the market and Hertz were forced to agree to several sales including their value brand, Advantage Rent A Car before the deal could be approved.

Even after these concessions many believe this isn’t enough and a price increase for domestic hire is on the horizon. What’s needed is some competition…. and could a relative newcomer to the USA market be the answer!?

Sixt Rent A Car entered the USA market quietly in 2011 offering low cost car hire from strategic locations such as Miami and Orlando. Whilst at the World Travel Market I had the pleasure of speaking with some of the Sixt management team who were all very excited and happy with their progress within the U.S., I asked them about future expansion and the possibility of buying an established company in U.S., their concern was picking up a brand with bad car rental habits, they cited expansion could come through franchises.

So I was not surprised to read that on Monday, Sixt put out a call for franchisees! More than 100 potential franchisees  expressed an interest!

So could Sixt be the company that helps keep the market competitive, lets hope so….?

regards,

James

Hi all,

Today I was browsing through a few other company blogs checking to see if there was anything I was missing. What struck me most was that I’m not blowing our trumpet enough…

usrentacar.co.uk has been the UK’s leading USA car hire specialist for almost a decade now; we’ve helped over 250,000 Britain’s hire fully inclusive car rental in all parts of the USA, we’ve constantly innovated within an industry that is slow to adopt new technologies including user generated reviews, facebook integration, our voucher app and of course our own insurance package. We’ve been nominated for 11 awards for excellence and featured in numerous travel media sites.

This is what our customers say about us -

Sandy

I have used usrent-a-car for many years, and they are simply the best and cheapest around (check out what’s included in the price). Others may look cheaper but then there are extras to be added.

When there have been problems (with the car rental companies, and not with usrent-a-car) they have sorted things out swiftly and efficiently.

When I have booked, last minute, they have ensured I had the voucher in time.

I would not use any other company.

Gerry

My son and his friend travelled to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas in October ’12 and wanted to hire a Mustang convertible of equivalent.
It was difficult to get an ‘all inclusive’ quote on the web. Many companies quoted on the basis that the young driver and second driver uplifts would be payable locally, but usrentacar quote was inclusive of both of these.
I reserached the company fully before I booked, reading reviews here and elsewhere, plus I used live chat to double check that there would be no extras to pay locally. All checked out OK and they paid just under £600 for 2 x 22year olds for 2 weeks car hire from Alamo.
Their travel arrangements worked fine. They were offered and did choose to pay an uplift locally for higher level of breakdown cover @ $70 total. Not sure that they really needed to, but they decided they wanted peace of mind so it was no great problem.
Initially they were offered a rather dull convertible but explained that they wanted to experience a ‘proper’ american convertible muscle car for their trip. They were then offered a Chevrolet Camaro convertible, and you can imagine their grins driving down the highway in that!
I must say that usrentacar.co.uk proved to have the best price, be one of the very few companies that could quote the actual price to pay with young drivers, and the arrangements, including the pre-payment of the young driver charge and the bundling of more than one driver, all proved faultless. I therefore recommend this company without hesitation!

Ian Dalgety

I have used US Rentacar on 4 or 5 occasions out of various different US airports and can’t fault them. Just booked again for summer 2013. Great service and competitive price.

Devon and Fay Price

We have been travelling to Florida for over 10 years and have used USRENTACAR for the last three year becuase they have the best all inclusive, value for money, car rental on the market.

They always deliver on their promises by using quality suppliers.

All these reviews and more can be verified through our partnership with TrustPilot where we have an average score of 9.1 out of 10!

That’s probably enough trumpet blowing for today… but sometimes you have to remind yourself and your customers that we are the best.

regards,

James

Hi all,

Here at usrentacar.co.uk we are always looking to make car rental simpler, if this means moving a button here or altering some text there then we do it, we are keen to make USA car hire as transparent as possible.

Today we are happy to announce a new partnership between ourselves and ebay owned PayPal to incorporate the very popular PayPal express service.

What is PayPal Express

PayPal express is the integration of the very popular PayPal system directly in to U.S. Rent A Car’s site; this is what PayPal themselves say about it.

People prefer PayPal because they don’t have to enter their card details every time they buy online. By adding Express Checkout to U.S. Rent A Car’s payment options, they are let millions of PayPal customers check out in less than three clicks.

You will see the PayPal express button on our secure payment page (pic below), you will require a PayPal account to take advantage of the express payment facility.

Gavin Boswell Founder of usrentacar.co.uk said;

We are delighted to announce our new partnership with PayPal; we are always looking to work with like minded companies with technology at the core of their business and PayPal are definitely one of them.

Gavin added;

For our customers its that little added bit of speed, security and peace of mind and as usual no additional cost will be added to the customer car rental booking.

The express service is also being integrated in to sister company Orlando Attraction Tickets who recently launched a new logo and tagline.

Here’s to a long a successful partnership.

regards,

James